She told us how an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 caused the immediate collapse of the mountain side and triggered a landslide that swept through 230 miles in ten minutes -- the largest landslide in recorded history. Ash clouds from the blast generated static electricity, which in turn generated lightning bolts as long as two miles, igniting forest fires throughout the region. In total, the volcano released 24 megatons of thermal energy, a force equivalent to 1600 times that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The air was thick with ash. People wore surgical masks to avoid breathing it in. It clogged engines and grounded air and automobile traffic.
As the ash settled, the devastation was revealed. On city streets, ash was plowed like snow to the side of the road, but there it stayed, never to melt. In the wild, trees were laid back like fur on a frightened animal, stripped bare, pointing the direction of the blast like compass needles. Miles of magnificent, old-growth forests were washed into Spirit Lake at the base of the mountain. Where once stood a perfectly conical, snow-capped peak, there was now a mile-wide crater.
And yet, where humans see devastation, nature finds opportunity. Ice-covered mountain lakes shielded underwater communities, and other animal species were able to survive in sheltered underground pockets. Throughout the blast zone, scorched land created new habitat.
As the ranger later told us, changes began taking place almost immediately that marked the eruption as only a brief moment in the eternal cycle of renewal. The mountain's web of life today, he said, is more diverse, complex, and productive than it was before the 1980 eruption.
As we pondered these things, we couldn't help thinking how life is so often like that: Many of our greatest blessings and strongest life lessons arise from our darkest moments.
Isaiah 61: The Lord hath . . . sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound . . . to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes.
Photo credits: Heidi Rodeback, Andrew Furner, Laurie Patterson
